Tuesday, May 31, 2011

May 2011 Favourites and Hair Disaster Aftermath

I still enjoy the products featured on the April 2011 Faves post, but a new set of products have been making the rotation lately. For the hair disaster follow-up, scroll down to #7 on the list of products.

1. MAC Paint Pot in Soft Ochre - Used as a shadow base/primer for years before Urban Decay came out with the shadow primer, I actually acquired this product after I tried the UD Primer Potion. I don't know why, but I like to use Soft Ochre under cream shadows and save the UDPP for when I use powder shadows. If you're looking for something to make your shadows more vibrant and to wear longer, I definitely recommend UDPP. However, there's something enjoyable about dipping your finger into a pot and just tapping it on the skin.

2. H2O Shine Mattifying Essence - This product is no longer available, which speaks to how long I've had it for. However, the texture, consistency, colour and smell remain the same, so I'm just going to forget that there's such a thing as expiry until I discern a change. Because? This kind of rocks. The only spot I apply it is on my nose, which is the oiliest nose a nose ever was. Doesn't matter what I put on it and how I set it. Without this baby, my nose looks like it's been dipped in a frying pan within an hour after leaving the house.

3. Clinique Chubby Stick in Whole Lotta Honey - I love tinted balms and very creamy lippies. This product isn't glamorous or trendy, but it's a wonderfully natural lip colour on me and keeps my very chapped lips looking moist without being too shiny. The only reason I'm not going out to grab one in every colour is that I already have a crazy amount of lippies at the moment.

4. Marcelle Eye Make-up Remover Cloths - This came in a skincare package and is a travel size version of the original. I wish Marcelle would just sell the travel size separately as it's super handy to carry around, for those days when your eye makeup just melts in the heat and you'd rather take the whole thing off rather than touch up all day long. My makeup will be fine in an air-conditioned office, but the second I head outside to go to my evening classes, I'm going to want to pull this out and just take off my makeup instead of swiping at my undereye all night as I've been doing tonight.

5. D&G 3 L'Imperatrice - According to Sephora, this "is a confident, charismatic, boundary-shattering blend with a top of rhubarb, kiwi accord, and red currant; a heart of pink cyclamen, watermelon, and jasmine; and a base of musk, sandalwood, and grapefruit wood. The impression channels a successful, compelling character that is neither male, nor female, nor unisex, moving with dynamism to the free, edgy style that marks the D&G fashion empire." Um, no. It's very very femme and is a good mixture of fruity and flowery without being too sweet or overpowering. It's a great spring perfume. It wasn't listed on my perfume inventory because I found it for half the regular price at Winners after I had already published the post. Like I said, spring time is precious short in Toronto, so I've been spraying the heck out of this bottle for the past few weeks.

6. Annabelle Leopard Bronzer in Jungle Belle - Tracy of Beauty Reflections posted a great review of this with a swatch, and I resisted at the time but caved last week. Am I ever glad I did! The mix of all the colours give me a nice flush with just a hint of bronze. It may look more brown than pink if you're extremely fair, but I find that there's enough pink in the pattern to work as a blush/bronzer, saving me the task of applying two different products. Multi-tasking product for the win! (Annabelle is a Canada-only brand, but if you're in the U.S., click here to see how you can order Annabelle products.)

And now, for more hair drama.............!

7. MoroccanOil Intense Curl Cream - I've had this for a while and forgot to include it in the haircare inventories. Even though it specifically says that it's for (very) curly hair and I've been calling my hair wavy all along, I had a gut feeling that this product was going to work magnificently. I used it once while my hair was still long, and unfortunately, it just seemed to weigh down hair without controlling the frizzes or shaping the curls. However, now that my hair is shorter, I gave it another try when I finally had to wash my hair for Sunday's wedding and debut my new curly mop without the aid of salon styling. Here's the result!

There's shine, definition, volume, and movement. You don't get the crunchy feel or wet look of a mousse or gel. This is also second day hair, the morning after the wedding. The shape lasted all through Sunday, Monday and will possibly even today. I'm kind of loving my shorter 'do now that it's easy to manage and the Intense Curl Cream helps to keep it manageable. I love that all I have to do is rake the cream through damp hair and just let the whole thing air dry without lifting a finger afterwards. Also, I don't see anybody else around with this hair. It's not the most flattering cut ever, but I like the feeling of being unique.

8. Chanel Le Vernis in Black Pearl - Because of the hair mishap, I was feeling unsure about how to style myself for the wedding on Sunday. I spent a portion of Saturday night and Sunday morning changing up the dress, shoes, bag and nail colour in every combination possible. Then it hit me that I should just go for the elegance and mystery that Chanel Black Pearl evokes. I loved it the first time - why waste the opportunity to show it off some more?

I should stop here before I run out of favourites to promote the rest of the season. So, which products have you been enjoying this month? Any life changers that I need to know about?

Lovely favourites! The MoroccanOil Curl Cream sounds like a fantastic product. I use the original oil from the brand and really love it so I might grab the cream, do you think it would be ok on fine hair? Your hair looks great in the photos, really healthy and shiny!

@Justine - Awww, I feel for you. How do you like the MO? The oil is amazing for heat styling but I don't know if it's particularly nourishing if you apply it alone. I wonder what the gentlest way of dying your hair is. Maybe you can do a dark colour like that once and just not touch anything damaging all summer long.

@Ashley - If I think that it can be found at Winners, I never pay full price either. :) They had the entire line of these D&G unisex bottles and 3 L'Imperatrice was hard to find because it's quite popular. But after I snagged the last one, I noticed another bunch of them showed up the week after. Good luck!

@Nat - Is your hair curly? If the original oil doesn't weigh down your hair, this might work as well. It's a very thick cream but doesn't feel like it once it's on my hair. My hair isn't super thick but it's not thin. Maybe apply sparingly in paper thin dosage at first?

@Zuzu's Petals - Thank you! It's all because of the Intense Curl Cream. Without products, it's a giant ball of frizzes. :)

You girls are tempting me so much with that Annabelle bronzer, even though I keep saying I don't need another bronzer....I think my little voice is losing this battle. Your hair looks amazing, shiny, healthy, beautiful curls, just amazing!

Your hair looks simply fabulous! The shine is incredible and I am green with envy at those 'beachy-looking' natural waves.....you're a doll! Glad to see so many positives coming out of what seemed like one big whopper of a negative! You rock it beautifully!

Your hair looks so good! I'm so glad you were able to get it fixed. And I'm so jealous that you can get it to look so good letting it air dry! Color me green. It seems like I've heard nothing but raves for the MoroccanOil brand, but I've tried a few other items with argan oil and they always seem to be too much for my fine hair. I guess it's not meant to be :(

@Tracy - Short layers definitely bring out the curls! I was afraid it would be TOO curly, but I think this is just right. Yes, the MO curl cream will be perfect for your hair as well!!!

@Tracy D - Thank you! I'm going to hold off on the Kerastase product you reviewed for me, since this will tide me over for a while. But the Annabelle bronzer is only about $10 so maybe you can treat yourself one day soon. :)

@Caitlin - Thanks! :) MO came out with a lighter version for fine-haired gals, so maybe that will work out better? I've also seen small samples sizes being sold at salons for about 1/4 of the reg. price. http://www.moroccanoil.com/en/component/content/article/30.html

OMG Your hair looks terrific!! My hair dresser uses that lotion on my hair, but he uses sooo much that it feels heavy and sticky, so I was turned off. But if it made my hair look that good...I'll have to give it a second look :) I'm glad the disaster turned into something utterly fabulous!

Thanks, Latoya!! That's a good point. My hair definitely gets greasy by the third day. I used to be able to go 3-4 days without washing my hair sometimes but either because I have short hair or due to this product, can't go past 2 days. Still, love it! You should give it another shot!